INSPIRING WOMEN
We spoke with Maayan Ziv about the importance of accessibility
We spoke with Accessnow founder and CEO Maayan Ziv about the importance of accessibility in our world. Maayan, who uses a wheelchair herself, has changed the way we relate to the built environment in cities and communities around the world. Through her own experience living with muscular dystrophy, her work as a photographer and now as an app developer, she’s truly made her mark.
Canadian Living (CL): How did Accessnow get started? What motivated you to create this platform?
Maayan Ziv (MZ): Accessnow started out of my own experience as someone who was born with and lives with a disability. Throughout my life I have used a wheelchair, and I often face barriers to accessibility, whether grabbing a cup of coffee across the street or travelling to a new city. There are so many different barriers in the world that stop people like me who use wheelchairs, or other people with disabilities, from navigating those spaces. Accessnow was a response to my own experience and my own frustration with growing up in a world that wasn’t really built for me. It’s now grown to be a platform that shares and highlights the reviews and experiences of people throughout the world, people both with and without disabilities.
CL: What does accessibility mean in the context of the service your app provides? MZ: For people with disabilities, accessibility—a basic need and human right—is such an integral part of the way that we live our lives. The meaning of accessibility can be quite personal, but generally, it’s a concept of inclusion and a design principle that ensures people of all abilities are able to engage with and be involved in our world. For me, it’s about being able to navigate the built environment, but it can also be about awareness, online tools, digital accessibility, especially for the blind or lowvision community, and even public policy—how we design our policies and systems to be inclusive for people with disabilities.
CL: How does the app work? Can you give us an overview of its features?
MZ: The platform allows people to search for places, as you would on any map-based application, but from an accessibility point of view. It’s a mobile app, first and foremost, as well as a web platform. Users can search for places like restaurants, hotels, stores, parks, government buildings or offices, hospitals and schools to find answers to their specific accessibility questions or concerns.
Users can also add new places or post reviews based on their experiences with accessibility. The more people who contribute to the platform, the more powerful it becomes. Our goal is to be able to map the entire world from the perspective of accessibility—so far we’re in 34 countries. It’s through a combination of crowd-sourced, grassroots efforts by individuals and small communities as well as larger partnerships with companies and organizations that spaces are mapped on our platform.
CL: How quickly did it become this global community, and were you surprising to see how fast the app’s reach expanded around the world?
MZ: It’s one of the most exciting and rewarding pieces of the work that I get to do at Accessnow. When we started in 2015, it was just in time for the Parapan Am Games in Toronto and I wanted to make sure that Accessnow would be ready for people to use when they were visiting Toronto, maybe for the first time, with many of them having disabilities themselves. There was an immediate response from the community, affirming that this was important and a need that didn’t just speak to my personal experience, but was reaching people around the world. That, to me, was a very inspiring moment—to see how people were able to share their own experiences and use the platform to raise their own voices and concerns about the importance of accessibility.
CL: In what ways has Accessnow grown since its inception?
MZ: We started out focused on accessibility related to specific mobility needs, and have since expanded to ensure our platform supports people of all different experiences. The app now includes tags, such as braille or sign language, scent-free spaces, quiet spaces and gender-neutral washrooms.
CL: How has the app changed in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic?
MZ: It definitely changed and broadened our definition of accessibility. We realized that in focusing only on getting out and around, we were missing out on an opportunity to share information about places and experiences that were available from home. It led to our newest feature on the app, Access from Home.
CL: What are the benefits of creating a more accessible world? MZ: Accessibility benefits every single person on the planet. When we design things that are accessible, they are more inclusive. For example, stop announcements on public transport in Toronto were advocated and fought for in court by someone who is blind, and now we can all benefit and make use of that feature. Curb cuts were designed and advocated for by someone using a wheelchair who could not get off the sidewalk to cross the street. Now we use them to push strollers or carts. There are so many examples of things in our world that were designed first to be accessible for people with disabilities that we all now benefit from. If we took that approach from the beginning, we would see a better-designed world and a more inclusive one.
‘‘ There was an immediate response from the community, affirming that this was important and a need that didn’t just speak to my personal experience, world.’’ but was reaching people around the
CL: What can we as Canadians do to support greater accessibility in our communities, to be better allies and to make our communities more inclusive? MZ: There are so many resources online, especially on social media, that are creating awareness and sharing information about the importance of accessibility and the disability-led narrative. Being informed is the first step. The second is realizing that we all have a part to play in inclusion and ensuring spaces are diverse and welcoming, and it’s no different when we think about accessibility. We can each contribute, whether it’s by informing people, adjusting language or designing customercare policies.
CL: Is there an achievement related to your work with Accessnow that you’re most proud of?
MZ: I recently received the Governor General’s Innovation Award. In the moment, I felt like maybe it was too soon to be recognized because I haven’t yet accomplished the things that I believe need to happen. But it also validates the concern and amplifies how important accessibility is. I take the opportunity to be recognized on behalf of the community as a chance to raise awareness.
CL: You’re also an accomplished photographer—how did you get into that?
MZ: I started taking photos in high school on a trip to New York City. When we arrived, the airline had broken my wheelchair and I couldn’t get around with the rest of my class. So I started taking pictures of different intersections and corners of the city since I couldn’t really do what we had planned. By the time I was in university,
I reached out to some modelling agencies and started building my book. Pretty soon I was networking and getting a little bit of attention based on the fact that I wasn’t really like anyone else. Photography will always be my first love.
CL: What is your most memorable project?
MZ: One of the most special moments for me was an opportunity to combine my worlds: my black-and-white editorial style and a project focused on children with disabilities going to camp. I worked with a group of photojournalists— I was the only one with a disability, and each of us were assigned to different accessible Easter Seals camps across the country. As a person with a disability myself, the photos I took hit a bit differently because I come from that world, I understood who those kids were because I was one. Telling stories about the importance of accessibility from an authentic lens, as opposed to as an observer from the outside, was really a very special moment for me.
CL: How has your photography influenced your advocacy work, or vice versa?
MZ: Working in the photography industry is where I first started to raise my voice about my own issues. At the time, and even still, it remains a male-dominated, able-bodied industry. Through my work as a photographer, I found a way to communicate my perspective of the world—from the view of someone sitting on a wheelchair. I come from an arts background so I’m always thinking about how things are perceived and communicated, and how we can use storytelling to bring people into a narrative and invite them to be a part of something new.